Scottish Brexit MEP left school illiterate
THE Brexit Party’s first elected politician in Scotland is an entrepreneur who left school at the age of 15 barely able to read or write.
Louis Stedman-Bryce, 44, yesterday became one of Scotland’s six MEPs after Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party secured 14.8 per cent of the vote north of the Border.
He moved to Scotland in 2014 and lives with partner Gavin in Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire. They operate a private healthcare business which provides care in the community for elderly people.
But it took him years of effort to get into business.
He said: ‘I left school at the age of 15 with no qualifications. I’m dyslexic and I struggled with school. I fell through the system and could barely read and write when I left. But I did have an appetite to learn. I’ve done all sorts since then, from scrubbing toilets to working in McDonald’s.’
Mr Stedman-Bryce taught himself to read and write and found he was a good communicator, working in human resources and recruitment roles before eventually being headhunted and moving to the charity sector, which saw him work in dozens of countries around the world, mainly in health and education.
His home city is Brighton on the South Coast of England and he moved to Scotland shortly after the independence referendum. Although he did not have a vote in 2014, he insists that he is strongly Unionist.
He has set himself a lifetime mission to help impact the lives of one million people – and claims he has so far helped 0,000, adding: ‘I’ve still got quite a way to go.’